The Republicans were foolish to go along with the “bipartisan” seating nonsense. They needed to show America that the new House majority they elected was united and committed to opposing the spending madness of the President and Democrat-controlled Senate. And they needed to have the public clearly see the Democrat seals clapping like fools while Obama spouted about more spending. The GOP will never learn and Boehner is showing all signs of becoming a typical GOP “compromiser” (i.e. capitulator).
This is Rush Limbaugh’s take on the GOP getting duped into the seating deception:
“Look, folks, this is not a good sign. It isn’t fatal, don’t misunderstand here, but it’s an illustration of what one incident — (unintelligible) — hell, I don’t know. Things can happen overnight in politics and totally upset and change the game, i.e., Tucson. A totally, by the way, nonpolitical event that has been converted into a political event that somehow the Republicans need to go out of their way and say, “Hey, hey, hey, wasn’t us, and to prove it we’ll sit next to you guys in the State of the Union and we’ll go along with this Obama moving to the center stuff.” But what’s the symbolism of sitting together? All it is is a trick that’s been dreamed up by the Democrats to make sure that the vast Republican majority is not seen during the relative standing ovations or lack thereof. So the optics will not show this massive Republican majority in the House of Representatives. So what is it symbolic of? Well, it’s symbolic of the GOP playing along, symbolic of the Republicans not wanting to show distinctions, not wanting to draw on the differences.”